In appliance manufacturing industries generally, and specifically in the range or cooking appliance manufacturing industries, most appliances such as cooktops or ranges have a variety of control or selector knobs for adjusting and controlling the amount of heat supplied to the various appliance burners or heating elements. Typically, these knobs are easily accessible to the average user, thereby making them simple and quick to operate, but also providing ready access to children and others lacking the requisite judgment to safely operate the appliance.
In order to provide a measure of safety to oven and cooktop appliances, manufacturers have equipped some control knobs and selectors with simple lockout mechanisms. For example, some control knobs are mounted on spring-loaded shafts that require a user to push or depress the knob slightly before it will turn, thereby providing at least a small measure of child-safety lockout protection. Gas appliances are typically equipped with these push-unlock valves as a mechanism to prevent accidental valve operation but they do not offer a reliable safety lockout mechanism.
Various other child lockout systems have been provided in the industry, with varying degrees of safety and operability. There does not exist, however, a reliable system for providing child safety control to an appliance that simultaneously provides ease of access and use for an adult user.
From the foregoing it can readily be seen that there is a need in the art for control knob safety lockout system that can be employed with individual appliances to control access to appliance controls without adding significantly hindrances to appliance use.